Party leader has baby ...

Fresh from co-writing Sightings, Miriama McDowell is taking on one of the most intense roles of her career as a charismatic and idealistic politician in the political drama,

Burn Her. She plays Aria, the leader of the Aroha Party, who finds herself in the spotlight when the political outfit she heads unexpectedly wins a seat in Parliament.

Aria discovers there are deals to be made that pit the reality of being in power with the lofty rhetoric of the campaign. As a crisis looms that could destroy the party’s future, she must determine what or who she is willing to sacrifice for her own ambitions. Sound familiar?

It’s by award-winning young playwright Sam Brooks, who was inspired — shocked or maybe angered — by the double standards that women running for office are often held to in the media

“It’s about women in power,” says McDowell, “and it asks if we really do have power, even when we supposedly get into a place where we hold it, when you’re dealing with old-style systems and ways of doing things. It asks what you’re willing to compromise and if you can still do the job you want to do.”

It’s a great play; the words are amazing but I don’t think I have ever had a play where I’ve had to learn so much. I’m a parliamentary leader so I’m learning lots of great speeches.”

McDowell was determined not just to talk the talk, but to walk it as well. She told writer Brooks and director Sam Snedden that if they wanted her to play Aria, she needed to bring baby Hero to work with her and the hours needed to be family-friendly.

“It’s pretty great that here’s a company that was willing to do that,” she says. “I think that if women are to achieve real power, then we have to start making the sorts of changes that will really count and if you get an opportunity to make them, well, you have to seize it with both hands.”

Burn Her unites McDowell with fellow Massive Company alumni Bree Peters, who played the master manipulator Pania Stevens in Shortland Street. Peters plays another grand schemer, spin doctor George Rush.

Burn Her is the second of three collaborations between Brooks and Snedden this year and the second of the Matchbox Productions in Q Theatre’s programme of developing new plays.